


A Declined Resignation

by Lisa_Lisa



Category: 60일 지정생존자 | Designated Survivor: 60 Days (TV 2019)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Feelings, M/M, One-Sided Attraction, Press and Tabloids, Spoilers, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-14 06:34:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29041713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lisa_Lisa/pseuds/Lisa_Lisa
Summary: It was official: Mr. Park Mujin, the man who he had accidentally fallen in love with, was running for presidency....or,What Secretary Cha was actually thinking duringthatscene of Episode 12.
Relationships: Cha Young Jin/Park Mu Jin
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	A Declined Resignation

**Author's Note:**

> So, I'm very hyped with Designated Survivor: 60 Days, and when watching that final scene from episode 12, my inner fangirl mode was activated and I had to get this idea out of my system.
> 
> There are some minor spoilers of the series, so if you ever come across this one-shot and feel like reading it, do it at your own discretion ;)

Cha Youngjin’s heart missed a beat when checking his mobile and seeing that President Park was holding an improvised press conference. Without even recovering his jacket he rushed to the room where the event was taking place, barely paying attention to the people he was passing by.

The only one who caught his eye was Sojung. The woman was entering the room when he reached the corridor. Since their last interactions had been awkward to say the least, he internally counted to three before approaching the room himself. He was with his hand on the handle when one of the journalists’ questions reached his ears.

“ _I heard Secretary Cha handed in his letter of resignation. Does that mean that he admits he was involved?_ ”

President Park wasn’t someone who answered impulsively. He always took his time when talking, in order to make sure that his thoughts were going to be put into the most adequate words.

This time, the President’s answer was almost immediate.

 _“The internal investigation proved that all suspicions surrounding Secretary Cha were not true. I would like to make this clear to everyone. Secretary Cha was not involved in the attack of the National Assembly building._ ”

Youngjin’s eyes opened more. He could count with the fingers of one hand the times he had heard President Park talk with such vehemence. Right now, he had sounded as if he was throwing a challenge, daring to the people of the room to say the contrary or twist his words. He was so surprised by the turn of events that he missed the next question that was formulated, coming back to reality when President Park talked again.

“ _The reason why Secretary Cha submitted his letter of resignation was because he feared the media’s reports, based on mere speculations in the interest of gaining attention regardless of the facts at hand, would incite distrust between the people and the Blue House._ ”

Again, President Park wasn’t someone who was easily angered. He had seen the man look disappointed, or irritated at most, but never angry.

At that moment though, the embarrassed silence that fell at the other side of the door made him remember when he was at school, and the teacher reprimanded the students after doing something wrong. He wasn’t inside yet, but he could clearly picture the way the journalists must be avoiding the President’s stern gaze.

Youngjin’s gulped, his heart hammering against his chest while slowly assimilating that the only motive why President Park was facing the press was to defend him, something that he would have never expected to happen.

He hesitated, not sure if he should enter or not. At the end, he took a deep breath and brought himself to open the door, making the most of the formed silence to enter with discretion.

A quick look to Namwook’s expression served to confirm his suspicions that the speech the President was giving hadn’t been prepared by him beforehand. No one had advised the President what to say; the President hadn’t memorized anything. Every word the man was saying, charged with emphasis, clarity and confidence, was coming from him alone, and Youngjin had to force himself once again to keep certain thoughts from spiraling out of control.

Youngjin took a couple of steps forward to stand behind the journalists taking pictures on the last line, devoting all his efforts to avoid showing any unnecessary emotions.

“We did not accept his resignation.”

President Park made eye contact with him at that moment and he was frozen on the spot, attentive of the next words that the man was going to say next.

“It is because the Blue House and I believe the media’s suspicions and verifications are solely to support the people’s right to know and to serve the public interest at all times. I trust that you will protect our nation’s dignity.”

He couldn’t help to smile when the President’s tone wanted to make clear that the issue had been settled. The man hadn’t been in that position for long, but it seemed that he was starting to use his politeness as a weapon to silence people. Better late than never, he guessed. Although by basing on the last events, it was unlikely that the President agreed to his petition; and to be honest, unless he was a masochist - and last time he checked, he wasn’t - perhaps it was better that way.

As every time he thought about the appointment of the next President of Korea, he felt contradictory feelings invading him. This time though he couldn’t spend much time thinking about it, since at that moment Ms. Woo stood up, microphone in hand.

“I will be straightforward. Will you run for President?”

Youngjin’s heartbeat, that had managed to normalize during the President’s last reply, accelerated again when hearing the question. A shocked murmur spread in the room. He could see out of the corner of his eye how Namwook talked to Soojung. It seemed that such a question was unexpected as well, which was demonstrated when, that time, the President’s answer wasn’t immediate.

After a few seconds of relative silence, Ms. Woo talked again.

“Will you announce your candidacy for the presidential election?”

The repetition of the question provoked a wave of new questions. Several journalists asked the President to answer, but Youngjin didn’t even hear them. Again, the President’s gaze was on him and him alone, and he could only return it, his breathing was again heavier with anticipated tension.

“I’m sorry for the late reply.”

The President finally averted his eyes from him to look at the press. It didn’t take President Park much to give his answer, but the seconds that followed felt way longer than they actually were.

“I will be running for President.”

Since he started working in The Blue House, Youngjin had needed to learn to keep a straight face no matter the situation they were facing.

It was true that he didn’t always manage to do it. Sometimes dealing with certain people proved to be challenging, and on more than a few occasions he had been reprimanded by Secretary Han for his polite but too sharp and almost sarcastic answers.

Nevertheless, Youngjin had always thought that he did a decent job by keeping his temper under control and his deepest emotions hidden.

Such belief vanished right then, as he was forced to press his lips together while fighting with the lump that had formed in his throat when the President _finally_ agreed to what he had been asking for over and over again during the past days.

It was official:

Mr. Park Mujin, the man who he had accidentally fallen in love with, was running for presidency.

To be honest, he didn’t know when he had started to think about President Park as something more than the leader that he wanted to see governing. He wasn’t blind, and he had realized that the man was attractive and classy since the first time they were introduced. However, aesthetics aside, he wasn’t sure which was the exact moment that his heart decided to betray him by making him fall for the only person in the world that he should have never allowed himself to fall for.

Maybe it happened for all the times he had visited the President’s office to find him asleep on the table surrounded by papers, studying and working harder than anyone else.

Maybe it was when witnessing that, despite being a man of impeccable rightness, the President was willing to let his integrity end stained by fake rumors for the sake of protecting the non-biological son that he loved as such.

Maybe it was because, despite having filtered that video without even asking him first, the man surprised him by giving him the position that should have been for Soojung instead.

Or was it even before that, when the President showed that, despite being the last one prepared for the position, he had the guts to face the leader of North Korea to solve the conflict like no one was expecting?

Well, he guessed that it didn’t actually matter the exact moment. What should worry him was that, as he had been fearing from the start, those feelings didn’t look as if they were going to disappear anytime soon.

He had tried. He had _really_ tried to bury that inadequate affection, but it had been useless; not even when he had come to be interested in other people.

Soojung was a lovely woman. She was intelligent, pretty, stubborn, loyal, and he liked her a lot. He enjoyed their conversations, their constant bickering, and all the flirting that had been transpiring lately between them. He had even looked forward to that beer that they never got to have, and before that press conference, he had even been willing to approach her again to try to work things out.

It was obvious that a relationship with her had way more future than a one-sided longing for Park Mujin, the Acting President and now an official candidate for Presidency, a respectable, married man who was a doting husband and father, and who for sure couldn’t even imagine the kind of thoughts and not-always-pure fantasies that he harbored towards him.

However, he couldn’t keep deceiving himself anymore. He had tried to do so, but deep inside, he had known from the start that he was lost, and that at least for the time being, he had no chance of getting over that infatuation as long as President Park kept being himself: a good man who strived to do the best without thinking about his popularity; a man who got on his nerves for his naivety and determination of carrying out a campaign of no lies and transparency; a man who had showed in more than one occasion that he trusted data above everything else, but that had never stopped trusting him even when evidence had pointed otherwise.

His mind was telling him that putting some distance was the best approach; probably asking the President for another position, one that didn’t require him to spend so much time with him, was the best choice.

It was a pity that his heart prompted him to do otherwise, and that he was idiot enough to listen to it instead.

So, as the flashes of cameras illuminated the room, and the sounds of fingers frantically typing on laptops resonated, Youngjin showed a smile of resignation and nodded once towards the President when their eyes met again.

His feelings may be inconvenient, and working alongside the President for sure would cause that it took them even longer to disappear - if they ever did, something he wasn’t very sure about. However, when seeing that such a simple nod was enough to reduce the stiffness of the President’s shoulders, Youngjin decided that he would never leave that man’s side. He had been the one depositing his faith - and something more - in the acting President, and it was his duty to be there for him, no matter how complicated it could be.

After all, no one said that working in the Blue House would be easy, and as the proud man he was, he wasn’t going to give up just for the perspective of ending with a broken heart.


End file.
